A couple of years ago I led a Teacher’s International Professional Development (TIPD) visit to Ontario, Canada to look at best practice in meeting the needs of its diverse communities. I was accompanied by eleven other colleagues from three secondary schools and four primary schools in Leeds with a high percentage of Pakistani heritage pupils. We wanted to find out more about what it was they did in Ontario to close the achievement gap for its diverse communities,with a particular focus on Pakistani heritage pupils. We were there for a week and were lucky enough to visit both primary and secondary schools run by Peel District Education Board (PDEB ) headed by Tony Pontes who is their Director of Education. Tony was born in Portugal and moved to Canada as a child when his family migrated there. Amongst his enviable record in education and leadership skills, he also has the empathy and understanding with his personal experience of having been an English Language Learner (ELL) the equivalent of our English as an additional language (EAL) learner here in England. PDEB covers the municipal areas of Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon which are just outside of Toronto.

I was, therefore, interested in watching this video “How Canada is closing the achievement gap” released by Edutopia in 2012.

Two general points really struck me - one was the fact that children and young people generally were not required to wear uniforms and were dressed very informally, with many of them being allowed to eat and drink even in lessons. This seems to support the findings of the Sutton Trust - Education Endowment Fund, Teaching & Learning Toolkit 2012, which states that “There is no robust evidence that introducing a school uniform will improve academic performance, behaviour or attendance”. Despite the informality, the whole atmosphere in classrooms and around school was one of respect for adults and other students. Interestingly the pace of teaching was quite slow compared to the expectations made of teachers here in England. Despite this slow pace students generally behaved well with very little if any behaviour issues seen. The major difference we saw was the role of the PDEB which has much more power over its schools than Local Authorities have here in England. Generally the District Education Board is responsible for the overall strategic direction and values which it wishes its schools to follow and all schools are expected to implement these. Even the hiring and deployment of teachers is a task that is undertaken by the District Education Board with Principals, as well as teachers moving schools when required. Although Principals do have a role to play in appointment of teachers they are not the final decision makers of which teachers are appointed. I can’t see many Heads in England agreeing to the LA choosing their teachers today! Each school also has a superintendent – the equivalent of our Advisers. All these functions seem very familiar to the role of the old Local Education Authorities we had here in England when I first started teaching and raises interesting points to consider within the present context of the diminishing role of LA’s! I have just touched on a just a few of my own personal observations and impressions from my visit. Colleagues interested in finding out more about Ontario’s education system and the reasons why it is one of the most successful may wish to read the attached OECD publication “Ontario, Canada: Reform to Support High Achievement in a Diverse Context” which is available to download below.

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Equitable Education

Equitable Education's blog keeps you updated with the latest news and developments in closing the gaps in education. We regularly share best practice materials and case studies of proven strategies to close the education gaps, along with the latest research from the UK and internationally.

The blog is written by Sameena Choudry and the views are entirely her own or of her co-authors when written with colleagues.